A rough terrain vehicle including an electric power steering system that is disposed in front of an engine is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-231011.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-231011, the electric power steering system includes a drive motor 60 that is disposed in front of an engine unit 3 mounted on an all terrain small four-wheeled vehicle 1 with an exhaust pipe 38 extending rearwardly from the front part of the engine unit 3.
When the vehicle is being operated, the drive motor 60 is cooled by air flowing over the motor. However, especially while the vehicle is stopped or operating at low speed, the drive motor 60 cannot be expected to be cooled by air flow. In addition, it is necessary to consider that heat generated by the engine unit 3 and exhaust pipe 38 radiates directly to the drive motor 60 to raise the temperature of the drive motor 60.